Who were the Hollywood 10?

The Hollywood 10, blacklisted after appearing before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee
This is Adolph Menjou signs contract that includes him shaving his moustache for $10,000, Edward Dmytryk (center) and Stanley Kramer watch
Photo ran01/30/1966 , Datebook pg. 3
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The Hollywood 10, blacklisted after appearing before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee
This is Adolph Menjou signs contract that includes him shaving his moustache for $10,000, Edward Dmytryk (center) ... more

Photo: Handout

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The Hollywood 10, blacklisted after appearing before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee
This is (l to r) 9 of the ten writers, directors and producers, Robert Adrian Scott, Edward Dmytryk, Samuel Ornitz, Lester Cole, Herbert Biberman, Albert Maltz, Alvah Bessie, John Howard Lawson, Ring Lardner Jr. surrender as a group
The tenth, Dalton Trumbo, sent word he will surrender tomorrow
Photo dated 102/16/1947
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The Hollywood 10, blacklisted after appearing before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee
This is (l to r) 9 of the ten writers, directors and producers, Robert Adrian Scott, Edward Dmytryk, Samuel Ornitz, ... more

Photo: Handout

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The Hollywood 10, blacklisted after appearing before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee
This is Adrian Scott, handcuffed to another prisoner, is to serve a yea fro contempt of Congress testimony at the House UnAmerican Activities Committee session
Photo dated 09/27/1950
AP photo less

The Hollywood 10, blacklisted after appearing before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee
This is Adrian Scott, handcuffed to another prisoner, is to serve a yea fro contempt of Congress testimony at the ... more

Photo: Handout

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Who were the Hollywood 10?

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After World War II, Congress acted against what it perceived to be a dire threat to the nation — communist activities in the United States. It formed the House Committee on Un-American Activities and subpoenaed witnesses to testify whether they had communist affiliations and who among their acquaintances did. In 1947, 10 Hollywood figures — mostly screenwriters — refused to testify, citing their First Amendment rights, and were in turn held in contempt of Congress. All spent time behind bars for their beliefs. This began the infamous “blacklist,” which denied employment to those deemed un-American in their thoughts. These 10 were among the many who saw their livelihoods, as well as their liberty, taken from them as a result.

Alvah Bessie (1904-1985): Novelist, nonfiction writer and screenwriter. Oscar nominee for “Objective Burma,” a patriotic war story. Was active in the antifascist cause, fighting in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War and drawing praise from Ernest Hemingway for “Men in Battle,” an account of his war experiences. Wrote “The Un-Americans,” a novel about the blacklist, and “Inquisition in Eden,” a nonfiction account. The blacklist ended his Hollywood career.

Herbert Biberman (1900-1971): Screenwriter and director (“Salt of the Earth”), an early advocate for war against Germany following that nation’s invasion of the Soviet Union. The film “One of the Hollywood Ten” (2000) tells the HUAC story from his point of view. “I do not consider this committee to be stupid,” he said in 1947. “On the contrary, I consider it to be evil. It is not communism the House Committee on Un-American Activities fears, but the human mind, reason itself. … This committee is in the course of overthrowing not Karl Marx, but the constitutional way of American life.”

Lester Cole (1904-1985): Screenwriter (“Born Free”) who helped found the eventual Writers Guild of America. Wrote “Hollywood Red: The Autobiography of Lester Cole” (1981), in which he recounted confronting former communist and HUAC witness Budd Schulberg during a radio broadcast: “Aren't you the canary who sang before the un-American Committee? Aren't you that canary? Or are you another bird, a pigeon — the stool kind. ... Just sing, canary, sing, you bastard!” The lifelong communist died in San Francisco at 81.

Edward Dmytryk (1908-1999): Prolific director who made “The Caine Mutiny” (1954) and “Murder, My Sweet” (1944), among other noirs, and was Oscar-nominated for his work on “Crossfire” (1947). After being cited for contempt, escaped to England and worked there for a time. Upon returning to the U.S., he was jailed. After a few months, he testified before HUAC, naming names and injuring standing cases by other members of the Hollywood 10. He then successfully resumed his long career.

John Howard Lawson (1894-1977): Screenwriter who was the first president of the Writers Guild of America, West (he helped found its forebear, the Screen Writers Guild) and head of the Communist Party in Hollywood. Served as an ambulance driver in World War I. While blacklisted, taught at Stanford University. His words — “My opinions are not an issue in this case. The issue is my right to have opinions.” — are immortalized in Jenny Holzer’s permanent installation at the University of Southern California, a series of engraved benches called “Blacklist.”

Ring Lardner Jr. (1915-2000): Reporter and screenwriter from a writing family including famed sportswriter and humorist Ring Lardner (Sr.) and John Lardner. Notable scripts include “Laura,” “Woman of the Year” and “MASH,” the latter two winning him Oscars. Prominently helped break the blacklist with his credit on “The Cincinnati Kid” (1965). Lardner claimed he won an Oscar via a front during the blacklist, but refused to specify for which film. In response to HUAC’s infamous question about whether he was or had been a communist, Lardner said, “I could answer the question exactly the way you want, but if I did, I would hate myself in the morning.” He also said, in 1947, “Only an act can be a crime, never an idea.”

Albert Maltz (1908-1985): Playwright, short-story writer, novelist and screenwriter. Won the O. Henry Award for his story “The Happiest Man on Earth” (1938). Screen credits include “The Robe,” “The Naked City,” “Two Mules for Sister Sara” and “The Beguiled.” Nominated for the Oscar for “Pride of the Marines” (1945) and won a WGA Award for “Broken Arrow” (1951) with fellow writer Michael Blankfort fronting for him. “One is destroyed in order that a thousand will be rendered silent and impotent by fear,” he said in 1947. Maltz took issue with Dalton Trumbo’s assertion that people on all sides were equally victimized by the blacklist, calling it a “bewildering moral position.” He cited Dmytryk’s capitulation to HUAC, followed by the “Crossfire” director’s return to work, while Robert Adrian Scott, the producer of “Crossfire,” did not testify and was blacklisted for 21 years. “To put the point sharply: If an informer in the French underground who sent a friend to the torture chambers of the Gestapo was equally a victim, then there can be no right or wrong in life that I understand,” Maltz told the New York Times.

Samuel Ornitz (1890-1957): Playwright, novelist and screenwriter (“Imitation of Life,” 1934; “Little Orphan Annie,” 1938) who also was a social worker for the New York Prison Association. Co-founder of the Screen Writers Guild.

Robert Adrian Scott (1911-1972): Screenwriter and producer (“Murder, My Sweet” and best picture nominee “Crossfire”). Was married to actress Anne Shirley.

Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976): Screenwriter and novelist, an outspoken communist who was also a resoundingly successful capitalist — at the time of his blacklisting, he was the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood. Won two Oscars while blacklisted, for “Roman Holiday” (1953, using fellow screenwriter Ian McLellan Hunter’s name, with his consent) and “The Brave One” (1956, using the fictitious name “Robert Rich”). Helped shatter the blacklist with his credited work on “Spartacus” (1960) and “Exodus” (1960). Also wrote “Lonely Are the Brave,” “Johnny Got His Gun” (which he directed and adapted from his own novel) and “Papillon.” In a 1970 speech to the Screen Writers Guild, Trumbo said, “The blacklist was a time of evil, and … no one on either side who survived it came through untouched by evil. Caught in a situation that had passed beyond the control of mere individuals, each person reacted as his nature, his needs, his convictions and his particular circumstances compelled him to. There was bad faith and good, honesty and dishonesty, courage and cowardice, selflessness and opportunism, wisdom and stupidity, good and bad on both sides … none of us — right, left or center — emerged from that long nightmare without sin.”

Many others were affected by the blacklist, including screenwriter and UC Berkeley alum Michael Wilson (1914-1978), who wrote “Planet of the Apes” and “Salt of the Earth,” was an uncredited writer on “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and while blacklisted wrote “Lawrence of Arabia,” “The Sandpiper” and “Friendly Persuasion” and won the Oscar for “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”